1.2 Million Energy Jobs Available, Will Obama Admin. Open OCS for Business?

December 2, 2009

Washington, DC – Tomorrow, President Obama, business and labor leaders, academics and other elected officials will gather at the White House for a jobs summit. Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research (IER), issued the following statement on the positive economic impacts that safe, responsible offshore energy exploration could have on our nation’s ailing economy and our long-term energy security:

“Affordable energy is the linchpin to a strong and prosperous nation and workforce. And there isn’t an industry that can produce more good-paying jobs more quickly, especially through responsibly expanding homegrown offshore energy production. For more than 25 years, presidents and leaders in Congress — of both political stripes — have kept enormous amounts of America’s job-creating energy resources off-limits.

“Inaction and the status quo cannot be accepted any longer — especially with today’s 26-year high unemployment rate. If the president and Congress are serious about crafting solutions to help put Americans back to work, they will move forward quickly with a commonsense plan to access more homegrown energy resources on and offshore.

“With more than 115 billion barrels of recoverable oil and over 565 trillion cubic feet of natural gas located off our shores, energy exploration along the outer continental shelf (OCS) could add more than $270 billion to our economy each year. To families, seniors and small businesses struggling to make ends meet, that’s good news. Our leaders in Washington should recognize that these resources are an asset, not a liability.”

According to an economic analysis of the proven resources located on the OCS — over the life of the production — access to America’s offshore oil and gas reserves could generate: